Wakefield supplier W.E. Rawson has been fined £600,000 plus costs following the death of an employee at its premises in 2014.

The company — whose activities include the supply of fillings used in mattresses as well as the production of carpets — last week pleaded guilty at Leeds Magistrates Court to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

That followed an investigation by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) after a 50-year-old employee became trapped in a packaging machine after trying to remove a stuck package in an accident four years ago.

The worker suffered crush injuries and later died. The HSE probe found the company had failed to take sufficient measures to prevent access to the danger zone between the moving conveyors.

In 2013, W.E. Rawson was fined £100,000 after the 2010 death of an employee who had been crushed by falling rag bales.